FOOD ALLEGIES!! PLEASE READ!!

Hi. I don't know how many of you decorate cakes as a hobby and how many of you do this as a business but I feel a need to clarify some things. I have read a few posts that tell me there are some serious misconceptions about food allergies out there. My 3 year old daughter has life-threatening allergies to peanuts, milk, and egg whites. So please forgive me if I seem a little tense but for the mother of a small child with food allergies, this a very scary subject.

First of all, lactose intolerance and milk allergy are 2 COMPLETELY different things. Milk allergies can KILL you. If my daughter were to ingest 1tsp! of milk, she would be covered head to toe with hives that spread until they all connect and she looks like one giant hive with her eyes swollen shut, would start projectile vomiting and would go into anaphylactic shock. We have carried an epi-pen since she was 9 months old. There is a list of about 40 ingredients that you have to look for when deciding if something is milk-free. So please don't think something is safe because it says Dairy-free or lactose-free. Butter flavoring and artificial flavoring are 2 of the ingredients on this list. So if you are going to bake a cake for a person with a food allergy, please let them or their mother (if it is a child) read the ingredients list for you before you use anything in their cake. Feeding your child something that wasn't made by you can be the scariest thing in the world for the parents of a child with such allergies.

Also, with the peanut allergy... Many people think if it doesn't have peanuts or peanut butter in it, then it's OK. NOT TRUE!!! Some people have the allergy so bad they will suffer just from breathing in the peanut dust. Luckily my daughter actually has to ingest it to react so we don't have to worry about her just being around peanuts as long as she doesn't touch them or put them in her mouth. What a LOT of people don't realize is that when you use utensils in peanut butter or cookies sheets to make peanut butter cookies, etc. you MUST scrub the equipment with soap and water in the sink and then sterilize in the dishwasher. This is the only way to ensure that you have gotten all of the peanut particles removed. Also, check the labels!! Even if something does not contain peanuts or peanut butter, it may have been processed in the same plant and even on the same equipment and therefore may be contaminated! My daughter can't eat any type of nut because it could have been processed on the same equipment as peanuts. Plain M&M's are unacceptable for a child with peanut allergies because they are processed at the same plant as the Peanut M&M's. By law, the label has to state whether or not it was processed near peanuts. If so, it will be stated on the package usually directly underneath the ingredients list. One example I can think of that you wouldn't think to associate with peanuts...the cookies that come in a McD's Happy Meal. The label states that they may contain traces of peanuts. There are so many things that you wouldn't think of, that I never thought of until I had to start reading EVERY label.

Sorry if I sound intense but I don't want another mother to have to go through what I did with my daughter because of common misconceptions. Rushing my child to the ER when she swelled up and turned blue because she couldn't breathe was the worst horror of my life. We won't buy anything from a bakery because of all of these issues (which is why I started decorating cakes) and our daughter is enrolled in a preschool that has a very strict peanut policy so we don't have to be scared for her life.

So if you agree to make an "allergy cake" for someone, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE take special care because you are talking about someone's life. If you have a question about an ingredient in a cake mix, ask the parent. Don't depend on anyone else's advice unless they ABSOLUTELY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT.

If anyone would like my recipe for a milk free, egg-free cake just let me know. I have a recipe that uses soy margarine for the icing and now that my daughter is starting to outgrow some of her milk allergies, I have a recipe that uses butter-flavored Crisco. Only the person with the allergy can tell you if butter flavoring is safe for them.

Please forgive my ranting, but this is a very touchy (and scary) subject for me.

Ashley

I just want to thank you all for being so understanding. I have a neighbor who thinks it is crazy to expect public schools to have a peanut policy and she's jumped down my throat a couple of times about how I shouldn't expect Caitlin to get special treatment. I told her where she could go but it is very bothersome when people think you are over-exaggerating something like that. I don't let Caitlin eat anything unless I know every single ingredient. You've heard of "Kiss the Cook"? Well, I "Quiz the Cook!" All of our neighborhood parties, even if I make a cake, I make cupcakes also so Caitlin has something to eat. I go to every single one of her class parties and I make the cupcakes for them. I volunteer to bring as much to her parties as I can so I know she can join in. She is only 3 but she is VERY good about not eating other things. I think I've scared her enough by being very serious and stern with her that she has paid attention. At 2 years, she started telling people on her own "I can't eat dat. I haf go to da mergy room." Now she is speaking a lot more clearly and she pretty much knows things that she can and can't eat and everyone who knows us knows that they don't give her food without asking mom first. They don't even try to ask my husband anymore because every time they did he would just point them over to me.
Again, thank you so much for being understanding about the seriousness of this subject. I appreciate it very much especially after the reception I've gotten from other people.

I agree. I don't think it is anyone's responsibility but my own and I am very careful about my daughter and usually we bring food for her wherever we go. I just wanted to set the record straight on some things because I have seen a few posts where the information was WRONG, Wrong, wrong. Since we are using this website as a help-center and preparing food for other people, I thought it would be important for people to understand that they need to ask the allergic person the information and not expect to receive information from someone who doesn't know for sure. I just want everyone to understand how serious it is especially since in telling people my daughter is allergic to milk, I can't tell you how many times the response has been "Oh, that's too bad. Don't they have medicine for lactose intolerance?" This is much more serious than lactose intolerance and could cost a child their life. I expect adults with these allergies to be responsible enough to take care of themselves. I don't however think it is unreasonable to expect a public school to be peanut-free. These are small children that don't always understand the seriousness of it. I'm trying hard to make sure my daughter understands but you never know. And since even Kindergarteners eat in the cafeteria at my son's school with not much supervision (only 4 teachers have lunchroom duty at a time), obviously a child with a food allergy is not being watched carefully to make sure they don't share food. My neighbor thinks that my daughter should have to eat in the office with the principal or her counselor when she starts school because her son won't eat anything for lunch but peanut butter sandwiches. But yet her son gets special treatment at baseball practice because he has asthma...which my daughter also has, by the way. I just think some people need to learn some compassion, sympathy, and empathy. For people out there who have none, you should try to have more feeling for other people. For the people who do already have those qualities, I thought it might help you to have the facts. Luckily I'm not bad at cake decorating so my daughter gets fantastic-looking birthday cakes...but not all mothers are as talented as the people on this website and could use a little help from an understanding cake decorator so their child can have a normal birthday in spite of their food allergies.